Photo: Jaime Lutz

See those bitters up there? They’re mine — or, my live-in boyfriend’s, really, as he got them for his birthday this year. Now that we have seven — SEVEN — different types of bitters, we’ve been having fun inventing cocktails — Aztec Chocolate Manhattans, anyone?

Since drinks only need a small dash of bitters to impart flavor, we’re going to have those bottles for a long, long time. Because of this, I’ve been trying to think of other ways to use them. My boyfriend’s sister recommended putting a drop or two in seltzer water for a refreshing spritzer. With a dash of grapefruit or Angostura bitters, it’s a refreshing — and unusual — alternative to soda.

Bitters can be used in food, too. Ian Knauer happened to write about this earlier in March for Grub Street New York:

A few chefs around the country use bitters in dessert, too. It’s somewhat surprising — bitters are, after all, bitter — but, as in many cocktails, sugar softens any acrid flavors of the Angostura. Monica Glass, now the pastry chef at Fish in Philadelphia, spikes cherry meringue with bitters. And Emily and Melissa Elsen of Four & Twenty Blackbirds in Brooklyn add dashes of Angostura to the fillings of their incredibly popular pies. It’s easy enough to do the same thing yourself, or to just add a few drops to ice cream.

But the savory applications are more interesting to me. While researching recipes, I came across one recipe for beef stew from a 1971 edition of the Sarasota Herald Tribune. The story used the phrase “stew-pendous,” but I won’t hold that against them because the idea of using Angostura in a stew like this is a very good one. In my version, the bitters’ flavor balances deeply sweet caramelized onions. The bitters do something similar in a squash soup: balancing and enhancing the squash’s natural sweetness. Plus, both dishes are great with an old-fashioned.